The museum showcases the incredible journey and influence of one of music’s greatest success stories and features an extensive collection of artifacts from the late country legend’s life and career, including guitars, awards, and childhood photographs.

Founder and owner Bill Miller, a close friend of Cash’s, donated his expansive collection of Cash-related rarities, which he had been piecing together, one at a time, for four decades. The museum, located at 119 Third Ave. S. between Demonbreun and Broadway, officially opened its doors on April 26.

Thursday’s grand opening event will feature prizes and offers to fans and patrons who attend. The event begins at 5:30 p.m and guests are encouraged to wear black and dress to impress, just like the Man in Black himself.

Tommy and Joanne Cash look around during a private viewing of the Johnny Cash Museum, located at 119 Third Ave. in downtown Nashville, Tenn. April 25, 2013 (photo: Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean)

Thursday morning, Joanne Cash Yates and Tommy Cash walked into The Johnny Cash Museum, a soon-to-open downtown space devoted to their late brother.

First, they smiled at an old Martin guitar with a folded dollar bill stuck through the strings: In the 1950s, before he had a drummer, Johnny Cash used a dollar bill to create a percussive effect when he strummed the instrument.

Then, they looked left and saw a display filled with family photos and artifacts, from the Cashes’ hardscrabble 1940s days in Dyess, Ark. There was a radio like the one the family used to listen to the “Grand Ole Opry.” There was Johnny’s Future Farmers of America card, and a school yearbook page. And then it was hard to see through the tears.

“I want to ask them what they think, but they won’t stop crying,” said Museum owner Bill Miller, whose extraordinary collection of Johnny and June Carter Cash memorabilia will be on public display in a matter of weeks, at 119 Third Ave. S. Johnny and June died months apart in 2003 in Nashville.

Click to see a gallery of Johnny Cash through the years (this photo: Rex Perry/The Tennessean)

A new downtown museum dedicated to the life and music career of the late “Man in Black” will feature 18,000 square feet of memorabilia, interactive exhibits and a 250-seat auditorium, organizers of the new Johnny Cash Museum announced today in their formal unveiling of its permanent home.

The museum, located in a former upholstery store at 119 Third Avenue South, will open sometime this summer, although no exact date has been set, said founder Bill Miller, a lifelong friend of Cash. Miller estimates it will cost him and other unnamed private investors behind the effort an estimated $7 million.

Miller, along with three generations of Cash family members that included son, John Carter Cash, brother Tommy and granddaughter, Chelsea, announced the plans at a midday news conference.

The museum’s formal launch Tuesday comes just days before what would have been Johnny Cash’s 80th birthday on Feb. 26.

“This is the realization of a long-term dream,” Miller told a gathering of music industry insiders and downtown business officials packed inside the new site for a news conference.

Said John Cash: “My father and mother had a way through honesty and truth of spirit. It’s not about the glamour or about making it for Nashville. This is about spreading their spirit.”